Switch! (32 page)

“No!” Ethan shouted. “Not the one from the spring – I know that one.” He felt Fisi’s body falter for only a heartbeat before it went in for the kill. Had the hyena felt Ethan prying in his mind? And why was it so important to the hyena that he curry favour with Ethan? Was he trying to lure him into something?

Tariro awoke with Ethan’s shout and groaned.
 

Panting from the exertion of the hunt – or was it the excitement? – Ethan tried to focus on Tariro. Jimoh already lay next to Tariro, quietly consoling the boy in Shona.

Despite the early hour, woken by the noise, several of the Tokoloshe got up and began to build a fire. Ethan wondered if he had merely dozed off for a bit, and dreamt of being in Fisi’s hunt.
 

He rose to go over to the fire but as soon as he moved he felt his face flush unnaturally, and sat down with a thump, putting his head between his knees. His hands and feet pulsed with something worse than hot pins and needles. It was like the feeling he got sometimes when he struck a nerve in his elbow. He felt agitated, to the point of screaming.
 

Salih raised his head and examined Ethan, his golden eyes thin slits of anxiety. “Are you well, Ethan?”
 

“You mean apart from wanting to explode, thinking I’m a shady hyena and worrying myself sick about the gemstones?” Ethan asked grumpily.

Salih took a long, contemplative breath. “You must sleep, Ethan. You have drawn blood for your friend. Too much blood, too soon. There is a fine balance with the magic. If you don’t rest you will be unable to repair yourself.”
 

“I can’t sleep. If I shut my eyes I think I am Fisi,” Ethan said, surrendering himself to the urge to scratch all over. “Yussy, do you have any idea how much vermin that guy carries in his fur?”

Salih smiled. “You do not have vermin, Ethan. Your magic repels them because you think of them all the time and avoid them. What you are feeling now is your blood stabilising, just as before. It will get worse every time you do it.” He regarded Ethan sternly, as if there had been any choice. “Beware. If you do it too often, this feeling may not go away.”

“You told me to do it! And speaking of magic,” Ethan said, still rocking back and forth on his bottom in agitation, “what the hell was that earlier with the lions? It was nothing like splitting crystals and exploding them outwards to multiply and stuff. I don’t even know where I got it from.”

“That would be because it came from me,” the leopard said. He looked to Ethan almost as if he was a little contrite. “In an emergency I can channel my magic through you.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “You mean without my consent?”
 

“Regretfully, yes.”

“And how will I be paying for that, may I ask?” Ethan groaned. With blinding headaches every time he tried to manipulate anyone’s thoughts – not that there had been any choice in that matter either – and unbearable agitation every time he bled, he shuddered to think what horrible side effects Salih’s magic would have on him.

“It is a bit of a gift,” Salih said with a wicked glint in his eye. “The more I channel through you, the more you will be able to move through people’s thoughts, and of course, the more you will be bound to me.”
 

“I don’t bloody want to move through people’s thoughts, Salih,” Ethan said, thinking about the distressing hunt Fisi was just in and feeling even more worried about the hyena’s shifty feelings. He scratched wildly in his agitation. “Why didn’t you channel your emergency magic through Jimoh, or through Tariro in the first place? If he’d been able to get up off the floor it would have spared the rest of us a lot of trouble.”

“You kissed the witch, Ethan. I can only channel through you.” Salih stretched luxuriously in front of the flickering fire, and purred contentedly, signalling that that was that.

Ethan did not want to be bound in any way to the leopard either. He wondered if Salih was imprinting his creepy witchy familiarness on
him
now, instead of the witch. What was he supposed to do with the leopard once they rescued Joe and went home? He supposed he could swing it with his parents, they were indulgent that way, but sooner or later the law in Cape Town would require the animal to be put on a leash.
Good luck with that,
he thought, and then a more troubling thought crept in: What if the leopard wouldn’t let him leave? It was probably best not to ask.
 

Salih laughed. “You are the only one
present
to whom I am attached.”

Well, that was exactly what the leopard would say if he planned to stop him from leaving, thought Ethan, before he tried not to think about anything at all. Then he smiled ruefully at Salih, who stared blankly at him as if he had no interest at all in Ethan’s thoughts.
 

“Okay, I will try to go back to sleep, but wake me up at first light,” Ethan said. “I have to go and find those gems. We shot them at the lions. They’re scattered all over the bush. I don’t know how we are going to get Joe back without them.”

“Wait!” Salih said, sitting bolt upright. “What did the Sobek, Kashka, say to you about the gems?”
 

“He said they would save Joe’s life.”

“No. He said they might save lives. And they did! I don’t think Kashka meant for the gems to reach Almoh. As fond as the Almohad are of gems, they would have gone looking for the source. Kashka would have had nothing to give you that resembled ammunition for your slingshots, but I think he knew you would meet the lions. Apparently the Sobek are talented that way. Amun and Darwishi had been expecting Gogo Maya at the Crystal Pool. Perhaps it is best if you leave the stones here, the ones in your pocket too. Mokele Mbembe will come looking for them.” Salih flopped down to the ground once more and went back to sleep. Typical cat, Ethan thought, patting the gems through his pocket. There may be only a few left, but it was the only leverage he had; he was not quite ready to give them up. Besides, what was the likelihood of there really being a dragon? Quite high, he admitted to himself with a worried glance at the entrance of the cave before closing his eyes and trying to get some sleep himself.

~~~

“You are something else, Ethan,” Tariro beamed at him in the morning, showing barely any sign of his ordeal from the night before. “How did you chase the lions? Did you think at them?”

Remembering the dreadful agitation of the night before, Ethan couldn’t help giving his head one last vigorous scratch. He was beginning to wonder if he had picked up lice. He was glad to see Tariro up and about though.

“No. Jimoh and the Tokoloshe kept them at bay till Fisi came. He chased them while I was scaring away the Adze. With my awesome fear power.”
 

“Fisi came?” Tariro said.

“Yes, they are hunting now. Will be back soon,” Jimoh said. He seemed to be collecting himself a bunch of interesting treasures. So far he had a row of baby warthog teeth on a length of twine around his neck and several interesting tails hanging over his trousers from a leather chord tied around his waist. He was trading dangly things with the Tokoloshe, Ethan realised. Several of them now wore roughly carved slingshots around their necks.

“I thought I was going to die. Literally,” Tariro said, and then he cocked his head to one side and regarded Ethan seriously. “Did you piss on me?”

Jimoh threw back his head and laughed. “He could not miss you. He was standing on top of you to stop lion. Very scary job.”

“That’s just crazy.” Tariro pulled the back of his T-shirt around to the front and sniffed it, wrinkling his nose, but he did’t take it off. “Who knew you had it in you... I don’t know what happened after that. I think I passed out. My foot was really sore.” He drew up his foot to inspect his wounds for the umpteenth time, and showed his leg to Ethan. “It’s just like your croc bite at crystal pools, Ethan. The lion bite has almost healed up from the magic I drank at the Sobek Lake. Will you teach me to scare things away too?” He yawned. “Funny, I slept really well. Do you think one of the Tokoloshe shot me?”
 

Ethan was on the verge of telling Tariro about the blood he had fed him. He couldn’t have the boy going around thinking he was invincible because he had drunk the magic. Knowing Tariro, he was bound to take unnecessary risks, but Jimoh gave him a warning look and then said, “Yes, Tariro, Tokoloshe shoot you by mistake. Don’t feel bad. One sister for Fisi also fall asleep when she get shot. She is fine now. Gone hunting.”

~~~

Ethan’s eyes widened in astonishment as he watched Fisi heft the sable off his shoulders and heave it up over the ledge as if it were no heavier than a sack of potatoes. He’d suspected the hyena youth was stronger than he’d been letting on, but a whole sable? Well, a sable calf, but still! Fisi said they would carry it up the escarpment to share with the pack. There was no danger of having to share it with Ethan – it would be like eating his own pet, after he’d watched it while it was alive, drinking at the spring in the valley.
 

Not that Ethan had ever had a pet. He’d always been loath to touch any kind of an animal, much less feed one. Their food was always so gross to prepare, and generally smelled repulsive. Salih was probably the closest thing he’d ever had to a pet. Ethan was starting to enjoy giving the leopard a good scratch behind the ears every now and again. The cat seemed happy to allow Ethan to stroke him, and tended to lean up against him at every opportunity, yet as time went by, he seemed less and less tolerant of being handled by Tariro, and even Jimoh.

“What are you smirking about?” Fisi said, bending to make a stirrup of his hands to boost Ethan up onto the ledge beside the dead antelope, and then leaping nimbly up the side of the embankment to rest beside him.
 

“I was just thinking what it would be like to have a leopard as a pet.”

Fisi’s mouth hung open. “I wouldn’t let Salih hear you say that!” His eyes darted nervously to the trail up ahead to make sure Salih was out of earshot, but he needn’t have worried. Everyone else was a long way ahead of them. Ethan could see Jimoh and three Tokoloshe inching their way up the secret pathway like spider monkeys. The rest had already disappeared around a crag in the cliff.

Ethan had dropped behind to help Fisi with his load. It was the least he could do after the hyena had saved his life the night before. Also, he had to admit to himself, he wanted to try and slip in to Fisi’s thoughts, but only to work out what the hyena’s intentions were. Not that Fisi needed any help. Apparently he hauled game up the escarpment all the time, without any help from the sisters. It was the way.

“I did not think you would return after you disappeared at the bottom of the waterfall,” Ethan said as they rested on the ledge, getting their breath back.

“I went to find this pack. To see if they would help guide you through the lion territory.” Fisi dangled his legs over the precipitous drop on the other side of Ethan, sending a few loose pebbles cascading down the cliff. Not for the first time, Ethan wondered at the young man’s complete lack of any feeling of vertigo.

“This pack? Are they not your pack?” The hyenas had changed to their human shape for the climb up the escarpment. They had all turned out to be girls and women, but at least one bore a close resemblance to Fisi.

“No, they are the pack that we saw from the top of the waterfall, but I knew who they were. I have hunted with them before.”

“Well, why did you come back?” Ethan said. “And for that matter, why did the sisters come to help us if it was so dangerous? They don’t even know us.”

Fisi hesitated, fidgeting with a tail hanging from his pelt skirt, trying to find the best way to say what he wanted to say. “We could not lose you, Ethan,” he said at last. “You have the power, and I think you are not afraid. There is something you can help us with. Something we never thought we could do.”

Oh no, thought Ethan, payback. “I am having enough trouble just staying alive and I have my work cut out for me trying to get my cousin back.”
 

He shifted uneasily at Fisi’s woebegone expression. Surely he owed it to the pack to do whatever he could, even if it sounded dangerous. Could Salih have been wrong about whether they could trust Fisi? Because all the hyena had done so far was help them. “What is it you think I can do?” he said

Fisi began in a low, soft voice. “I was with a girl, Tabita, from this pack but she was captured by the Almohad. It is our hope that you will find her and release her while you are there to fetch the boy, Joe.”

“Why haven’t you rescued her yourself?” Ethan said. He had rather hoped Fisi would be the one helping him to rescue Joe.

“If we go into Almoh in our human form they mess with our minds, confuse us and capture us. If we go in hyena form they can’t really manipulate our thoughts, but our natural human cunning is dulled and they can easily trick us. If they can trap us there, they withhold the magic until we are no longer able to reshape.” He looked a little embarrassed. “Even if we successfully rescue her without harming any of them they will hunt for another Kishi hostage.”

“That’s not very nice for the other Kishi,” Ethan said, although that was all very well for him to say, he realised. He would not leave Joe there to stop the Almohad going after someone else.

“I need this one more than any other,” Fisi said.

“Why don’t they just capture all of you?”

“They don’t need all of us. They just need a few hostages to ensure that they are never attacked in the forest. They are much stronger than us but a pack of hyenas would be able to overcome one Almohad or a pair. If they are harmed in the forest, they will execute a hostage.”

“Can’t they make some sort of a treaty? A promise, instead of keeping hostages?”

“Not all Kishi are friendly. Some are positively sneaky. You never know which ones will turn. The Almohad see us as a group who will all behave the same way. We don’t blame them. Even we can’t guarantee cooperation amongst the packs. That’s why we keep hostages of our own.”

“You keep hostages?”